Let Oakland voters decide Public Ethics Commission funding

Oakland has a Public Ethics Commission, but you'd never know it. Some of the city's elected elites have relied on the agency to justify salary hikes - and little else.

It's languished for 18 years as a largely forgotten, underfunded, powerless branch of city government.

But there's a prime opportunity to correct that problem: The City Council on Tuesday night will decide whether to approve Councilman Dan Kalb's good-government proposal to place an initiative on the November ballot asking Oakland voters to approve a charter amendment to set aside an additional $500,000 in annual funding for the agency.

Currently, the Public Ethics Commission exists on a $300,000 budget and has an executive director and two staff members but lacks the authority to do little more than order a cup of coffee.

The council needs to approve this measure - unanimously.

If approved by voters, the watchdog agency would be given the resources to investigate allegations of misconduct and procedural violations and the authority to enforce their findings through penalties and other sanctions.

Councilwoman Libby Schaaf, who is running for mayor, and President Pat Kernighan, who is leaving office in December, have both expressed strong support for the measure.

"It's time to give this watchdog some teeth," said Schaaf, a strong supporter of Kalb's plan.

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'Enforcement power'

For Kernighan, it's a decision based on experience.

"I'm going to vote for it, because I think it has been demonstrated that a political body will simply never have the will to police themselves or their colleagues," she said. "The only way to do it is through an independent body with real enforcement power."

She would know better than most. Her attempt to censure District 5 colleague Desley Brooks last year for unauthorized expenditures around a teen center in her district turned into a three-ring circus.

City officials also shrugged off a 2013 Alameda County grand jury report calling on the city to establish a Public Ethics Commission with the authority to penalize violators. The report underscored a scathing 2013 performance audit of elected officials by City Auditor Courtney Ruby.

Oakland's public officials have ignored every red flag warning, dismissed official concerns and operated for years as if the rules simply didn't apply to them.

Despite a veritable library of documents outlining examples of unethical behavior by numerous public officials over the years, there is a real question about whether Kalb's proposal will win council approval.

Kalb formed a committee and spent his first 1 1/2 years in office working on the proposal. He crafted it so the agency can serve as a public resource in addition to having the authority to enforce local charter laws.

"It's not just a gotcha agency," Kalb said. "People (meaning his colleagues) shouldn't fear the Ethics Commission. They should welcome it as something that will offer guidelines to help people comply with the law more thoroughly."

If approved, the law would take effect in January 2015, and the agency's new enforcement powers could not be used retroactively, he said.

'Ballot fatigue'

But even though the proposal comes with the offer to start with a clean slate, there's reluctance among some council members to support it. One, Lynette Gibson McElhaney, expressed concern that adding the measure to the November ballot will overburden Oakland voters and result in "ballot fatigue."

If the assumption is that Oakland voters as a collective group are dumber than a bag of hammers, well, that makes sense.

Otherwise, it's empty political rhetoric and absolutely meaningless nonsense in the context of this issue.

You really want to know what "fatigues" so many Oakland residents?

It's hearing, watching and reading media reports about the incompetent, selfish, arrogant and sometimes legally questionable acts of some of its highest-ranking public administrators and elected officials. That's what we, collectively, are fed up with.

Bravo to Kalb for his bravery and good sense. His hope - and broader goal - is to restore some level of public trust and confidence in Oakland City Hall.

"Voters should have an opportunity to make a decision on this - and it's long overdue," Kalb said.